The present invention generally relates to an apparatus for applying labels to products and, more particularly, to a solenoid driven mechanism for applying labels to products.
Revenue or tax stamps must be applied to individual packs of cigarettes and, because the taxes and stamps vary by state, county and even by city, these stamps are typically not applied to the packs until they reach their final destination. For ease of handling, cigarette packs are packaged in the cartons in which they will ultimately be sold or displayed and the cartons are packaged in relatively large boxes that are shipped to the desired location.
The tax stamps are typically applied by a stamp head that uses a combination of heat and pressure to release the stamps from a carrier roll and deposit them on the individual cigarette packs. This tax stamping operation is usually performed at a distribution warehouse with automated equipment that is capable of applying stamps at rates of up to 120 cartons per minute. However, there are situations where the expense of high volume automation equipment cannot be justified such as low volume stamping operations, or situations in which technical issues exist due to the size of the packs or cartons or the orientation of the packs within the cartons. In such situations, the typical manner of applying tax stamps is to use a hand iron, which includes a stationary base with an iron positioned thereon, together with a tax stamp feed mechanism so as to provide and align tax stamps with the stationary iron.
In order to apply tax stamps with a stationary iron, a user aligns an open carton of cigarettes with the stationary iron and presses the cigarette carton against the stationary iron. The stationary iron applies the heat and the user applies the pressure in order to transfer the tax stamps from the tax stamp carrier roll to the individual packs within the carton. Unfortunately, such manual process often results in poor and inconsistent application of tax stamps to the packs as the manual process is highly dependent upon the skill level of the operator.
High volume automated systems for applying tax stamps typically include multiple stations for processing the cartons of cigarettes. The cartons are unloaded at a first station and individually transported and processed in an automated manner. The cartons move from a first station at which the cartons are opened to a tax stamp application station at which the stamps are applied and then the cartons are transported to a station at which the cartons are resealed and loaded into boxes for subsequent distribution. Automated application stations typically utilize one of two types of mechanisms for applying tax stamps. In one type, a pneumatic cylinder is used to drive the stamp head in a reciprocating manner. While the reliability or performance of pneumatic powered automation equipment is generally not an issue, such systems require the additional expense, maintenance and complexity of providing an air supply within a manufacturing environment. Accordingly, the use of pneumatic systems increases the initial expense and reduces the flexibility of a stamp application operation.
A second type of automated application system is electrically driven and uses a motor and a series of gears and cams drive the linear movement of the stamp head. Due to the complexity and functionality of the gear and cam mechanisms, the length of displacement or stroke of the electrically heated iron is relatively fixed for each set of gears and cams and the systems are generally expensive.